By Amy Chua
[four out of five diapers]
This was a quick and easy read. I actually enjoyed the book very much. I think the people who criticized her parenting decisions did not read the book or were unable to relate to even one aspect of the book. Yes, from a Western point of view, her tactics seem over the top. But she continually reminds the reader why she makes her parenting decisions.
What I took away from the book is that Amy Chua never gave up on her kids, eveeeer. And despite all the fights because of her unrelenting "parenting", her daughters never questioned or had doubt about their mother's love for them. Also, I find her husband to be a remarkable man. He managed to keep a united front as parents and kept their arguments private from the daughters.
I share Chua's fear of family decline. She quotes a Chinese saying that "prosperity can never last for three generations". Even in myself or my peers, growing up upper middle class, I see the decline of drive and ambition that was in my grandparents and my parents. I see even less ambition, care for the future or success in some of my students. I worry if my students or my children will realize how much hard work it takes their parents for them to enjoy their socioeconomic status and how hard they will have to work to just maintain that status in their adult life.
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